Ban red-light cameras in Florida--a perfect example of government selling out citizens

Ban
red-light cameras in Florida--a perfect example of government selling out citizens
to benefit special interests and politicians, and to squeeze more dollars out
of the people

Farid A.
Khavari

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If you have
red-light cameras in your area, you probably know someone who has gotten a
ticket, or maybe you have gotten one yourself.
If you are not seeing red yet, just wait! When you see someone get a ticket
that costs half or more of a week's income, you realize how predatory and
regressive the whole rotten setup is.

There is no
convincing data to show that red-light cameras reduce accidents or improve
safety. This is especially true if cities shorten the yellow light times to
catch more people running red lights.

If we are
concerned about preventing accidents, there is one common sense solution to
reduce accidents, yet costs nothing: simply make all 4 lights red for 1 second
between light changes at the intersection, and keep yellow light times the
same.

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Obviously,
red-light cameras are not about safety, they are about money. Money first for the red-light camera
companies, of course, with a share for lobbying, political contributions, and
so on. Then some for the state, and some
for the city or town, all sucked out of the people, many of whom are poor and
suffering already.

No
politician who would consider red-light cameras as a legitimate way to raise
revenue deserves to be in charge of a landfill, much less a state or city
budget. At best it is a stupid and
shortsighted way to get revenue. In
reality, it is simply evil and predatory and makes people hate government and
politicians.

The millions
of dollars sent out of state to the red-light camera companies could generate
five times that amount in economic activity--and job creation--in Florida. The
same for the money paid to governments.
More economic activity means more jobs, which means many times more
revenue for government than the few bucks they get for each ticket.

As governor
I will push to eliminate these blood-sucking parasites from our intersections
forever. My economic plan will create a
million real middle class jobs in Florida without subsidies, saving government
far more than the dirty money gained from these cameras--and generating real
revenue from a vibrant economy, while reducing social costs.

There are
many other examples of government selling out the people, especially in health
care and property insurance. At least if
we reduce everyone's property insurance by 30% as my plan will do, people can
afford to pay their red-light tickets.

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Farid
Khavari, Ph. D. is a noted economist and an independent candidate for Florida
governor in 2014.

Farid A. Khavari, Ph.D., is a noted economist and independent candidate for Florida governor in 2014. He is the author of 10 books including Environomics: the Economics of Environmentally Safe Prosperity (1993) and Toward a Zero Cost Economy (more...)